Thursday, March 11, 2004

9/11 - The Hour

Press Secretary Scott McClellan seems to be easing off the one hour allotment for Double-face's testimony to the Worthless Commission - or more accurately, to the chair and co-chair of the Commission.

From a March 9 press briefing:

Q It's on the schedule for an hour --

MR. McCLELLAN: And believe me, you can answer a lot of questions in one hour.

Q Well, it's a pretty big event in our nation's history.

MR. McCLELLAN: It is.

Q And there might be a lot of questions to ask. So he's got an hour on the schedule, but you're telling us he's willing to answer all the questions that they might --

MR. McCLELLAN: But many of the questions have already been asked and answered at this point in their investigation, in the commission's work. But the President --

Q Nobody is going to watch the clock, it could run --

MR. McCLELLAN: That's right, nobody is watching a clock.

Yeah, you can answer a lot of questions in one hour if you're the Oaf of Office. And they will all be devoid of any information. And most of them won't even make sense.

But, it sounds like McClellan is saying that there's a possibility the waste of time could go longer than one hour. I wonder if he'll have someone there with him to stop him if he starts to say anything meaningful. I'm still wondering if he wears an earpiece and bug that allows someone to listen in and feed him info. Otherwise, why does he so often start out on a sentence and jump to another entirely different track midway into it? I guess it could be drugs. Or maybe God interrupting him and telling him to say something else.

Q If I could just pick up on Norah's question here on the relative burden, if you will, in the investigation -- the previous eight years or more and the months that this administration was in office. Can you tell us, to what degree, if any, does the President believe he is responsible in having run the government for those months, in perhaps not doing enough to foresee and to prevent this?

MR. McCLELLAN: That's what the commission is looking into. But, again, I mean, I think it's clear that these threats didn't happen overnight. These threats have been building for quite some time. Terrorists declared war on September 11th, when they carried out those horrific and tragic attacks on September 11th. And the President of the United States will never forget that day. And I think that's evidenced by the way he has acted since September 11th. This President's highest responsibility is to protect the American people. This President has acted on many fronts to prevent an attack like this from happening ever again.

And then he goes off into his standard campaign spiel.

The White House staff and the Idiot Son himself rely very heavily on sound bites and repetitive phrasing. "Will never forget that day" is being used ad nauseum. In fact, in this one press briefing alone, McClellan repeats it three times. Twice in exactly the same words: "The President never forgets the events of September 11th. They taught us important lessons, and he remembers those events every single day." I may some day turn up an actual number of the times His Slowliness the Dope has tossed "I will never forget the lessons of that day" into his speeches and reponses to questions. It'll be a big number. (More on this a little later.)

But, I want to make note here of this line they're starting to take about the threats having been around for a long time. McClellan has made this point already a couple times in the press briefing by the time of this question. Earlier it is made in the context that Clinton was president for the marjority of the time that these threats were being made. And nobody in the press room mentions that it was the first day of the Oaf's tenure with Jesus John AssKKKroft as AG that the focus on those threats was shifted as a policy toward domestic crime. In fact, when the intelligence agency folks tried to talk about the terrorist threats, they were told that nobody wanted to hear it any more.

Q In a couple days the President is going to be attending a groundbreaking ceremony for a 9/11 memorial in Long Island. A couple of hours after that, he's going to be at a fundraiser just a short distance away, raising money for his campaign. Is there any concern that the juxtaposition of those two events, the proximity, the close proximity in both time and distance will create at least the appearance of the President using 9/11 for political reasons?

MR. McCLELLAN: September 11th was a tragic and defining moment for our nation. And the President is honored to accept the invitation of the Nassau County 9/11 Memorial Foundation to attend the groundbreaking of their September 11th memorial. This was an invitation that was extended to the President in mid-February. The President is honored to accept the invitation and pay tribute to those who tragically lost their lives on that September day.

The President never forgets September 11th. The President remembers it every, single day. He has met with many families over the course of the last few years and helped to console them and grieve with them. This President is honored to pay tribute to those who tragically lost their lives, this Thursday.

Q There's no sense that it's just even a little bit awkward to be combining on the same afternoon a fundraiser and a 9/11 memorial -- related to criticism --

That trip he made to the Martin Luther King memorial event was under the same circumstances. As I recall, the benefit there is that the campaign trip expense can be paid for by taxpayers who are footing the bill for the other event.

And kudos to this unnamed reporter:

MR. McCLELLAN: ...The President never forgets the events of September 11th. They taught us important lessons, and he remembers those events every single day.

Q Well, forgive me, but it would also seem like he never forgets the need for a fundraiser.

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